It was big and Ars/Shotty was pegged as a potential million-view battle during the run-up but the current success is far beyond expectations.

Before the battle, Eurgh went to rapmusic.com and asked opinions on who to set up a battle with Ars: Shotty, Sensa, or O'Shea. Most people agreed Shotty was the best fit and that the battle was likely the biggest DF match-up yet. People knew this was a big get for DF since Arsonal brought the most views at the time. There was similar hype behind Ars when he battled Pat Stay on KOTD the year before: the league owner trying to make the most views and bring legitimacy to their league from an Arsonal opportunity with an aggressive, quality opponent.

After the 4th Birthday, people already tweeted and posted that it was fire and the best battle of the event. Not like "instant classic GOAT #1" battle but as a very solid battle living up to high expectations around a Don't Flop Arsonal match. The initial youtube release was scheduled for that Christmas and a lot of people complained to Eurgh to get the battle released sooner. That helps explains the unassuming November 10th upload date, imagine if you had to wait an extra month and a half to see the headlining match?

It did some great numbers for the time, 40k views a day after it was first out according to YT stats and that seems right to my memory. That's still behind other super-hyped battles at the time: Diz/DNA did 200K in one day a year earlier and URL battles released on Christmas gained more views initially like Hitman/Ars (and probably got Eurgh to think about Christmas release too).

The continued success is something else. Anyway, that's a lot of words about one match but it gives some at-time-time context.

PS: Arsonal vs O'Shea on the 4th birthday card would make a fun parallel universe.